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"Once we read about it and knew what was happening the obvious question was, what can we do to stop it?" Hanis said.
Darfur is a region in western Sudan consisting of an Arab population in the north and non-Arabs in the south.
Why the genocide started is often debated. The major massacres started in February 2003 after two non-Arab militia groups attacked a Northern Darfur airport, according to a U.S. State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research report released in March 2005.
The Sudanese government, along with the Arab militia group Janjaweed, reacted by attacking the southern non-Arab population, the report states.
From March 2003 to March 2005, the state department report estimated between 98,000 and 181,000 deaths have occurred in the conflict-affected areas.
Death numbers have gone down since the inception of the conflict because of "successful, albeit late, humanitarian response" the state department report said.
But Hanis insisted that doing more than was done during past genocides is not enough.
"Compared to the inactions of other genocides, [aide efforts] have been more positive," Hanis said.
But, he added, "Unfortunately our standards are so low."
Hanis, - a May 2005 Swarthmore graduate - joined with fellow Swarthmore student Andrew Sniderman in September 2004 to draft a proposal asking the question: Can citizens directly fund raise for peacekeeping missions?
"We learned how citizens can successfully mobilize government action and how citizens in general can take action to help crises," Hanis said.
The reaction to their proposal was initially met with mixed results, but when former Senior Director of African Affairs for the National Security Council (NSC) under Bill Clinton, Gayle Smith, heard the idea, she was interested.
"She said 'let's make this happen,'" Hanis said about Smith, who is now a senior fellow for the Center for American Progress.
"With help from the Center for American Progress ... we slowly started building more and more sources," Hanis said.
The GIF now has over 50 sponsors, including nine members of Congress, four former members of the NSC and two retired military generals, according to the GIF Web site www.genocideinterventionfund.org.
The organization's most visible advocate, however, has been their spokesperson, Stephanie Nyombayire.
When Nyombayire arrived at Swarthmore College in 2004, Hanis thought his fellow International Club member would be an ideal person to talk about genocide from her first-hand experience.
Nyombayire is a Rwandan native who lost 100 family members in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
When she spoke to Darfur refugees in Chad about the conflict, Nyombayire saw similarities to the Rwandan genocide.
"They are all being chased out of their homes, their houses are being looted, their cattle are being taken," Nyombayire said.
"They [the militia] don't want them in the country, they want to kill all of them," Nyombayire said she was told.
The Swarthmore sophomore recalled similar feelings in 1994 at the age of 8 when she first traveled to her parent's native Rwanda after the killings.
"Evidence of the genocide was just there, bullets were in every building, there were mines all over the city, you could not walk anywhere," Nyombayire said.
Nyombayire has had a major impact on helping the organization gain recognition.
Since joining the organization, Nyombayire has spoken at dozens of public events, including last month when she introduced former President Bill Clinton in Washington D.C. at a Campus Progress conference.
The exposure that the GIF receives is another vehicle to help end the massacres in Darfur.
But, Hanis said, awareness is just the first step.
"It's a three-pronged approach," Hanis said. "We want to raise awareness, and translate that into pressuring government into action and supporting [African Union] peacekeepers."
Federal lawmakers are starting to respond.
The United States Congress has introduced legislation called the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act with House Resolutions 1424, 3127 and Senate bills 495 and 1462.
Among other things, the bills call for sanctions on the Sudanese government, implementation of no-fly zones and the use of unmanned armed vehicles to maintain security.
The bills are currently being reviewed by sub-committees.
Hanis insisted that complacency could be costly.
"The implications of not doing anything are enormous," Hanis said.
He said that an unstable Sudan can be dangerous to the world and that an exorbitant amount of money will be spent on rebuilding a post-genocide Darfur.
"The amount of money [the United States] poured into Rwanda after the genocide was more than the money that would gave gone to preventing or quickly responding to the genocide," Hanis said.
He added that, "We will be facing national security, economic and world costs if nothing is done."
And getting involved is not difficult.
Hosting events, having candlelight vigils and showing related movies like Hotel Rwanda are all effective strategies Hanis said.
"People even have dinners where they invite 10-15 friends and talk," Nyombayire said.
Hanis added that, "I think people of Delaware County can have a really big impact."
For information about the Genocide Intervention Fund go to www.genocideinterventionfund.org.
